Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[now i see it]

it certainly doesn’t help that I tend to be a bit of an hypochondriac

Never discount the possibility. Imagined physical discomforts can manifest just as real as actual ones.
Here’s an example:
I started reading about how to clean a cottage cheese/popcorn textured ceiling because I was going to get an air cleaner that shoots directly upwards and every reference I read said that the ceiling should be tested for asbestos before disturbing it if it was sprayed before 1980.

As I read more about this with a grimace on my face and looked above me at my ceiling — my lungs slowly started aching. They really started aching about 30 minutes later and I couldn’t figure out why…. air was clear. Clear day…. until it dawned on me that I was subconsciously locking up my lungs reading about asbestos ceilings.

Never discount the possibility that these damn iPhones that we’re now all extremely paranoid of are doing the same things — to our eyes and head.

Is it possible? Absolutely.
Extremely unlikely? Absolutely not.

 

[john g.]

Never discount the possibility. Imagined physical discomforts can manifest just as real as actual ones.
Here’s an example:
I started reading about how to clean a cottage cheese/popcorn textured ceiling because I was going to get an air cleaner that shoots directly upwards and every reference I read said that the ceiling should be tested for asbestos before disturbing it if it was sprayed before 1980.

As I read more about this with a grimace on my face and looked above me at my ceiling — my lungs slowly started aching. They really started aching about 30 minutes later and I couldn’t figure out why…. air was clear. Clear day…. until it dawned on me that I was subconsciously locking up my lungs reading about asbestos ceilings.

Never discount the possibility that these damn iPhones that we’re now all extremely paranoid of are doing the same things — to our eyes and head.

Is it possible? Absolutely.
Extremely unlikely? Absolutely not.

Totally agree. I have a 14 plus arriving this afternoon. So far I have not had good luck with some of the other 14 phones. If I think hard enough about trying out this phone with skeptical expectations, I swear I can feel tension in my jaw and orbital area around my eyes. I feel like it sets me up to be tense when evaluating an Apple OLED phone.

 

[esaelias187]

Sorry to hear that- headaches now from the SE, so it has progressed beyond the dry eyes you had mentioned?
I hope that fades away for you, it's so frustrating to deal with this when simply trying to use a basic phone.


Did you say your 14 is arriving soon?

Yes tommorow

Yes i can fully agree after a full day use i have a throbbing pain around eyes and head cuz of se

Iphon8 is fine
Iphone 11 is fine

Annoying

 

[The.Glorious.Son]

Never discount the possibility. Imagined physical discomforts can manifest just as real as actual ones.
Here’s an example:
I started reading about how to clean a cottage cheese/popcorn textured ceiling because I was going to get an air cleaner that shoots directly upwards and every reference I read said that the ceiling should be tested for asbestos before disturbing it if it was sprayed before 1980.

As I read more about this with a grimace on my face and looked above me at my ceiling — my lungs slowly started aching. They really started aching about 30 minutes later and I couldn’t figure out why…. air was clear. Clear day…. until it dawned on me that I was subconsciously locking up my lungs reading about asbestos ceilings.

Never discount the possibility that these damn iPhones that we’re now all extremely paranoid of are doing the same things — to our eyes and head.

Is it possible? Absolutely.
Extremely unlikely? Absolutely not.

100% this. Not for everyone, but perhaps for some of us. I’ve brought many physical symptoms on via the mental process. I love this thread for community of good people it has brought together, yet I loathe it because I read it and pondered it before I ever first tried the X and subsequent OLED devices.

 

[jm31828]

Yes tommorow

Yes i can fully agree after a full day use i have a throbbing pain around eyes and head cuz of se

Iphon8 is fine
Iphone 11 is fine

Annoying

That is so confusing as to why the SE would be making you feel that way.
Good luck with the 14, I truly hope it is a big improvement for you!

 

[usmaak]

2.5 years ago, I was considering the iPhone 13 or the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. I read through this thread and it was one of the deciding factors in not getting the iPhone. But the Note 20 Ultra also uses OLED and also had a pretty crappy PWM measurement. For the first two weeks I was using the phone, I had a bunch of the same symptoms. After that, I forgot about PWM and this thread and the symptoms I was maybe having and I was able to use my phone with no problems other than the generally accepted idea that looking at screens for longer times is not considered healthy. In my case, I think that I talked myself into the symptoms I was having and that once I was able to put it out of my mind, I was fine. Not saying that this is the case for everyone else, but the mind certainly is powerful and can create physical symptoms based on belief and expectation.

 

[happy orchard]

100% this. Not for everyone, but perhaps for some of us. I’ve brought many physical symptoms on via the mental process. I love this thread for community of good people it has brought together, yet I loathe it because I read it and pondered it before I ever first tried the X and subsequent OLED devices.

Let me see if I can help here.

I'm sharing your words right up until the last clause. For me, I had issues with the OLED screens way before I found this thread and screamed--It's not just me?!?!?

...Does that help?

 

[The.Glorious.Son]

Let me see if I can help here.

I'm sharing your words right up until the last clause. For me, I had issues with the OLED screens way before I found this thread and screamed--It's not just me?!?!?

...Does that help?

Oh for sure. It’s just my personal situation where I’d never used an OLED prior to seeing this thread and therefore I had fears in my head before I even unboxed my first OLED phone.

 

[esaelias187]

That is so confusing as to why the SE would be making you feel that way.
Good luck with the 14, I truly hope it is a big improvement for you!

Im confused as hell myselfmaybe eyes adjusting

 

[happy orchard]

Oh for sure. It’s just my personal situation where I’d never used an OLED prior to seeing this thread and therefore I had fears in my head before I even unboxed my first OLED phone.

Absolutely hear you. And there's no way to know, is there? It's so frustrating.

In the spirit of one of my favorite things, you could experiment.

Maybe try thinking some really good or really bad thing about something that doesn't matter. Say an electric toothbrush. Not like the fate of the world. Do some internal building of the idea, and then go try the thing.

Sorry if that sounds dismissive or mean-spirited; I really do not mean it that way at all. I was literally thinking wouldn't it be cool to know better the power of your mind? Since we do all seem to influence ourselves to some degree, it might be interesting to learn more about your ability to do so. Back to the superpower idea of high sensitivity. It so often hurts us. Let's find ways to help us.

 

[jrajpaul]

My experience with the iPhone 14 has been horrible. I purchased it for my wife and traded in her 12 pro. I tried using it for about an hour to see if it has any effect. I started to feel dizzy and the right side of my brain started to feel pressure. My Eustachian tube in my ear became blocked and I felt really ill for about 10 hours afterwards. This has been my worst experience with oled so far. iPhone X - fine. iPhone 12 Pro - motion sickness and migraine. The 14 definitely triggered something else. These oled phones are definitely causing a seizure like event in our brains. Scary. I have a medical background btw (I’m a surgeon) so this is not some psychosomatic disorder. The pattern of flickering/ refresh of the display is triggering a brain wave response which is causing these symptoms. Maybe we all have something in common like previous brain trauma/brain characteristics/illness as a child. Who knows ? I currently have no other health issues besides the oled sensitivity.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Gotta continue saying some good things about the 14:
• Loving, loving using the swipe interface.
• Face ID is super fast.
• Size in hand is good with great weight resting on my pinky. Not top heavy like the 14 Pro.
• Email loads fast and is populated instantly. You don't know how long I've put up with my 7 Plus chunking while loading email (likely a bug). App often shows blank!

The bad (hyper sensitive detail, sorry folks):
Still finding screen is too bright and vibrant. Now at 40% fixed brightness with reduce white point at 60%. This is making my screen redder which also seems to boost the contrast to my eyes.

My lower eye muscles are starting to feel strained. Right eye is twitching a bit as I've realised this is my weaker eye. It also feels like my focus is drifting a bit. Forehead area is feeling a little congested (best description I can think of). 😞

I'm trying to consciously remember to blink more and to look away more often. I don't want to go too low with brightness just in case PWM get's worse. Also trying to hold the screen further away to keep a wider peripheral focus. Not sure what else to do other than persevere. Sad to say that out loud.

 

[jm31828]

My experience with the iPhone 14 has been horrible. I purchased it for my wife and traded in her 12 pro. I tried using it for about an hour to see if it has any effect. I started to feel dizzy and the right side of my brain started to feel pressure. My Eustachian tube in my ear became blocked and I felt really ill for about 10 hours afterwards. This has been my worst experience with oled so far. iPhone X - fine. iPhone 12 Pro - motion sickness and migraine. The 14 definitely triggered something else. These oled phones are definitely causing a seizure like event in our brains. Scary. I have a medical background btw (I’m a surgeon) so this is not some psychosomatic disorder. The pattern of flickering/ refresh of the display is triggering a brain wave response which is causing these symptoms. Maybe we all have something in common like previous brain trauma/brain characteristics/illness as a child. Who knows ? I currently have no other health issues besides the oled sensitivity.

Thank you for sharing, and for your additional insight as a medical professional!

Quick question- was it the regular (non-pro) 14 that you tried, or was it the 14 Pro? And do you just avoid OLED phones then, using an 11 or one of the other LCD phones?

This is all so extremely frustrating. I had wondered, even for some who are only mildly sensitive (or maybe those who don't notice it at all), if this PWM flicker is somehow still bad/unhealthy for us.

 

[john g.]

My experience with the iPhone 14 has been horrible. I purchased it for my wife and traded in her 12 pro. I tried using it for about an hour to see if it has any effect. I started to feel dizzy and the right side of my brain started to feel pressure. My Eustachian tube in my ear became blocked and I felt really ill for about 10 hours afterwards. This has been my worst experience with oled so far. iPhone X - fine. iPhone 12 Pro - motion sickness and migraine. The 14 definitely triggered something else. These oled phones are definitely causing a seizure like event in our brains. Scary. I have a medical background btw (I’m a surgeon) so this is not some psychosomatic disorder. The pattern of flickering/ refresh of the display is triggering a brain wave response which is causing these symptoms. Maybe we all have something in common like previous brain trauma/brain characteristics/illness as a child. Who knows ? I currently have no other health issues besides the oled sensitivity.

Yikes. I'm so sorry you had that experience. I must say that gives me a fair amount of trepidation to even open the box of my 14+ when it arrives.

 

[jm31828]

On another forum on Reddit I had a few people telling me that the 13 Mini is absolutely perfect, no issues even for those that couldn't tolerate any other OLED device.
Now I don't know what to think! My preference was the size of the mini, but had concerns over the seemingly worse PWM compared to the regular 14.....

 

[The.Glorious.Son]

On another forum on Reddit I had a few people telling me that the 13 Mini is absolutely perfect, no issues even for those that couldn't tolerate any other OLED device.
Now I don't know what to think! My preference was the size of the mini, but had concerns over the seemingly worse PWM compared to the regular 14.....

I’d probably chalk that up as part of the overall crapshoot. We are all different enough to where putting stock in others’ experiences, while certainly easier than trying every phone ourselves, has shown to be unreliable. I think the only way to know 100% is our own personal trials. One man’s positive 13 mini experience could be the next man’s living hell.

 

[Ac1d 8urn]

Well... after about 5 hours with my new 14 plus today, I think I might have a winner. Hectic day, had to drive an hour to find an apple store with one in stock, then had to set the phone up on ride back home with my husband driving. I only got a slight headache from trying to use 2 phones at once and navigate us home on my ipad in a moving car, which I fully expected but no eyestrain from the 14+ itself. I think my theory of small screens + ProMotion was correct. I finished setup at home and have been using it for the past few hours with no eyestrain, and my car headache is fading 🤞🤞🤞

Holy crap this thing is huge though. I am NOT used to this lol.

 

[jm31828]

I’d probably chalk that up as part of the overall crapshoot. We are all different enough to where putting stock in others’ experiences, while certainly easier than trying every phone ourselves, has shown to be unreliable. I think the only way to know 100% is our own personal trials. One man’s positive 13 mini experience could be the next man’s living hell.

Yeah, great point.
My own experience bears that out- I've seen a lot of people saying the 13 Pro was horrible for their eyes, but I went a year with it and it wasn't bad, I had bouts of some occasional left eye pain and headaches- but I get frequent almost daily headaches anyway, and this stems back to before ever using an OLED phone or even using smartphones at all- and yet I went stretches of 2-3 weeks on the 13 Pro with no headaches at all, too.

But, if I look at my wife's XS Max it definitely feels uncomfortable, as was the 14 Pro when I tried it out at launch.... it was minor, kind of a "bite" to the eyeballs, not really causing headaches per se...

So, I have no idea if it's even PWM that bothers me, or just the sharp brightness of OLED panels, or even as others have said in this thread- psyching myself out about it.

EDIT:
But to clarify, I was noticing increasing frequency of headaches overall when using the 13 Pro, which could have been coincidental but did lead me to sell it. For now I bought an SE, and am having far fewer headaches, and none of the left eye pain I frequently had with the 13 Pro. Maybe I'm just having a good couple of weeks, we'll see. (as stated in other posts, I get dry/burning eyes when using the SE, that has been consistent since I started using it a couple weeks ago- but at least that is not leading to headaches or anything)

But other phones like my wife's really do bother, definitely an uncomfortable sensation to the eyes, so there is something very real to that.

I am so tempted to run down to my local Apple store and grab a 14 and try it out for a couple of weeks and just see how it goes, knowing there is no risk, I can return it at any time and go back to the SE I just bought.

 

[moviemaster7777]

Well... after about 5 hours with my new 14 plus today, I think I might have a winner. Hectic day, had to drive an hour to find an apple store with one in stock, then had to set the phone up on ride back home with my husband driving. I only got a slight headache from trying to use 2 phones at once and navigate us home on my ipad in a moving car, which I fully expected but no eyestrain from the 14+ itself. I think my theory of small screens + ProMotion was correct. I finished setup at home and have been using it for the past few hours with no eyestrain, and my car headache is fading 🤞🤞🤞

Holy crap this thing is huge though. I am NOT used to this lol.

I second your theory. The regular Pro's feel like they're searing my eyes but the larger Pro Max's, I can adjust to within a few hours, even the ones with Promotion (turned off).

Bummer because the Pro size-wise would be absolutely perfect for me, the Max is some getting used to that I'm not sure I can...

 

[nadiamo]

My day 5 on Phone 14: Today I've been feeling fine with the phone overall. I'm hopeful again that this could be it. I had the True Tone on for the first few days and had it off since yesterday. Maybe my eyes/brain liked it better? This phone is definitely much less bright than the 14 Pro, which works better for me anyway.

 

[Ohwhatastorm]

I tried the iphone 14 today and I think it’s a no go—nausea, headache, and feeling like I can’t focus my eyes well on the screen.

(Previously used iPhone X for two years with no issues, traded it in and upgraded to 11pro and had nausea/headaches. Tried to buy another iPhone X, which felt somewhat better but gave me headaches after a day or two. Now I’ve been using iPhone 8 plus for years. I can use the iPhone SE but not the iPhone 11 with lcd screen for some reason.)

Really hoping for a iPhone SE with 8 plus body in 2023 but it’s looking less and less likely.

 

[jm31828]

My day 5 on Phone 14: Today I've been feeling fine with the phone overall. I'm hopeful again that this could be it. I had the True Tone on for the first few days and had it off since yesterday. Maybe my eyes/brain liked it better? This phone is definitely much less bright than the 14 Pro, which works better for me anyway.

That’s great to hear!!

I am intrigued by your comment about it not being as bright as the 14 pro- that was one main problem with the pro when I tested it, it was eye piercing.

 

[happy orchard]

Gotta continue saying some good things about the 14:
• Loving, loving using the swipe interface.
• Face ID is super fast.
• Size in hand is good with great weight resting on my pinky. Not top heavy like the 14 Pro.
• Email loads fast and is populated instantly. You don't know how long I've put up with my 7 Plus chunking while loading email (likely a bug). App often shows blank!

The bad (hyper sensitive detail, sorry folks):
Still finding screen is too bright and vibrant. Now at 40% fixed brightness with reduce white point at 60%. This is making my screen redder which also seems to boost the contrast to my eyes.

My lower eye muscles are starting to feel strained. Right eye is twitching a bit as I've realised this is my weaker eye. It also feels like my focus is drifting a bit. Forehead area is feeling a little congested (best description I can think of). 😞

I'm trying to consciously remember to blink more and to look away more often. I don't want to go too low with brightness just in case PWM get's worse. Also trying to hold the screen further away to keep a wider peripheral focus. Not sure what else to do other than persevere. Sad to say that out loud.

Oh @jimmy_uk I was getting happy for you at the beginning of your post. Then it went sad fast.

I don’t remember, did you ever try an 11? Seems like you might be able to get some of that positive stuff (like Face ID and swipe interface) with it and its LCD screen. Feel like you said the 11 wasn’t an option, but don’t remember exactly…

 

[happy orchard]

On another forum on Reddit I had a few people telling me that the 13 Mini is absolutely perfect, no issues even for those that couldn't tolerate any other OLED device.
Now I don't know what to think! My preference was the size of the mini, but had concerns over the seemingly worse PWM compared to the regular 14.....

On principle, I’m wary when people use extreme language: ‘Absolutely perfect…no issues…couldn’t tolerate any other OLED device.’ But in this case, I‘m sitting here shaking my head at my screen, going that’s so not true. I can’t even handle the 13 mini in store.

 

[happy orchard]

That’s great to hear!!

I am intrigued by your comment about it not being as bright as the 14 pro- that was one main problem with the pro when I tested it, it was eye piercing.

I experience the piercing brightness, too. However, I wonder if some of that was my own doing.

In the past, when I’ve tried OLEDs, I’ve kept the brightness way high and the RWP way high, hoping that would reduce some of the flickering. So I did that this year when trying the Pro. After reading about people trying lowering their RWP and sometimes just using Auto-Brightness, I thought I’d try that (this time on a Pro Max.) And, I don’t want to jinx things, but that seems to be helping.

Not sure. Know it’s not a panacea. But jic you or others haven’t tried it and want to see if it might help…